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Danna Korn

Danna Korn is the author of “Living Gluten- Free for Dummies,” “Gluten-Free Cooking for Dummies,” “Wheat-Free, Worry-Free: The Art of Happy, Healthy, Gluten-Free Living,” and “Kids with Celiac Disease: A Family Guide to Raising Happy, Healthy Gluten-Free Children.”
She is respected as one of the leading authorities on the gluten-free diet and the medical conditions that benefit from it.

No matter what your reason for your dietary restriction, one of the
hardest things about this diet is talking to people about why you must
be gluten-free, and trying to explain the diet itself. Responses range
from complete understanding (sorry, this is extremely rare), to people
who think they understand but don’t (“Oh, this is just like when I gave
up liver for Lent!”), to those who don’t care an iota about your diet,
to the other 95 percent of the population who really want to understand,
but just don’t get it.

When Tyler was diagnosed with
celiac disease at the age of 18 months, I wanted desperately to talk to a
kid––one who could talk––about what it’s like to have celiac disease.
Do you feel jipped? Does it make you sad? Do you feel “different” from
the other kids?!? I was heartbroken––grief-stricken––I had a long way
to go before I would evolve into the cheerleader I hope I’ve become in
helping people live––and love––the gluten-free lifestyle.

Variety, it’s been said, is the spice of life. So
what’s a person to do when they’re told to eliminate wheat and/or
gluten from their diet? Most turn to rice, corn, and potatoes—an
adequate set of starches, but ones that are sorely lacking in nutrients,
flavor, and imagination.

You’ve all heard the joke
proclaiming that “denial is not a river in Egypt.” No, it’s not. What
it is, though, is a very real issue for many, if not most people who
have been diagnosed with celiac disease or gluten sensitivity. There
are a couple of types of denial—the first type affects us—while the
other type affects those around us.

You’ve
found a food you’d really like to eat. You’ve read the label, and it
looks as though the product might be gluten-free. You’re drooling! You
can dig in, right? Wrong. It’s a good idea to call the manufacturer to
confirm that there aren’t hidden sources of gluten.

At first, a diagnosis of celiac
disease can be daunting, to say the least, and for some people, even
devastating. It means giving up some of your favorite foods—pastas,
breads, pizzas, cakes, cookies, and pretzels—at least as you used to
know them. So why should you consider yourself lucky if you’ve been
diagnosed with celiac disease? Because you’ve been given the key to
better health.

In the 13 years I’ve been involved
in the wonderful world of “gluten freedom,” one of the questions I’ve
been asked most frequently is whether or not the entire family should be
gluten-free. For parents who have kids on the gluten-free diet, this
seems to be a natural instinct––if Johnny can’t eat gluten, none of us
will. But I’m not sure that having the entire family go gluten-free is
the best thing––unless, of course, it’s for health reasons (I, for
example, choose a gluten-free diet because I believe it’s healthier).
This is one of those questions that has no correct or incorrect answer,
so I’ll share with you, for what it’s worth, my personal perspective on
the issue.